OUR TOWNS

OUR TOWNS; Fitting 'Baby' For New Braces, And Quite a Bite

By MICHAEL WINERIP

Published: January 11, 1991

FRANKLIN SQUARE, L.I.—
If circumstances were a bit different, it would have been routine orthodontia: braces to correct an underbite. Overbites, cross bites, underbites, Dr. Myron Belkin has straightened them all out in 29 years as an orthodontist. But this? "This I'm not very optimistic about."

"As far as I know, it's never been done," said the referring doctor, Robert Altman. The two were in Dr. Altman's operating room adjusting a specially made dental appliance before fitting it. "Her bite is very irregular," said Dr. Altman. He had the patient under his arm and was prying sticks in her mouth.

"Yes," said Dr. Belkin. The patient screeched. "I didn't know it would be so noisy," Dr. Belkin said. He was used to humans.

Dr. Altman handed the patient to an aide and said, "The thing that makes it hopeful: She can bite the right way, and hopefully this will be a training device rather than a device to move the mandible."

Suddenly a voice came over the operating room speaker: "Cat for surgery! Cat for surgery!"

Dr. Altman first got the idea for braces last fall. The 6-month-old patient's underbite was so bad that she couldn't crack nuts. She had to be fed mushy things every two hours by hand. (She favored brown rice and scrambled eggs.) "I'm her mother," Arlene R., who insisted on anonymity, had told the doctor. "You're talking about one of my kids, my precious angel, a priceless little darling."

Dr. Altman nodded. He knew this. He decided to consult his friend Dr. Belkin. Dr. Altman has taken care of Dr. Belkin's dogs and cats. Dr. Belkin fitted Dr. Altman's children for braces. (The cat, the dog, the children all thrived.) Dr. Altman knew that Dr. Belkin was used to humans, and brought him along slowly. When the patient tried to climb on an assistant's head, Dr. Altman said, "See how she chews that hair? Watch the position of the mandible."

The men knew it was a longshot, but as Dr. Altman said, "You don't make gains unless you try." Dr. Altman is known for having designed a prosthesis for a duck's bill. He lectures worldwide at universities. One of his birds sang opera on Johnny Carson. "This bird was so good," said Dr. Altman, "they replay him on the best of Johnny every year."

It took Augie at Woodbury Park Orthodontic Lab two tries to make the brace. (Another guy who's human-oriented.) Finally, the other day, it was time. They tested the upper piece and it fit fine. "O.K., we'll glue that on," said Dr. Belkin. "Screech!" said the patient. "Do they ever bite?" asked Dr. Belkin. Dr. Altman nodded.

"Maybe you better put it on," said Dr. Belkin, who had never, until then, realized just how accustomed to humans he had become.

The bottom piece was trouble. It fit the model they had constructed, but during the two months of design research, the patient had grown.

Dr. Belkin used a drill to alter the appliance. The work went slowly -- reshaping the brace, trying it on the screeching patient, returning the patient to her cage, reshaping. Sitting outside, the worried Arlene kept sending in messages, asking when they would be done. "I don't know," said Dr. Altman. "This is trial and error, trial and error."

The acrylic to fasten the braces wasn't drying properly, so Dr. Altman got on the phone. The manufacturer immediately sent a fresh batch. After three hours they had the brace right and mixed the last acrylic in a cup. "I used this same cup to make the duck prosthesis," Dr. Altman said. He slid the braces on.

Within seconds the patient bit ferociously, splitting the brace. The dental appliance that some of the best in the business had put their minds to fell in the wastebasket.

"Bit right through it," said Dr. Altman, and that seemed to sum it up.

The orthodontist and the veterinarian stepped out of surgery and into one of the hallways at A & A Veterinary Hospital. They had another idea for stronger braces. They would try again. Someone has to be the first to fit a cockatoo with braces.

Dr. Altman lifted the cage with the bird, Lotus, in it and said, "I'll take it out to Arlene. She's going to have a fit." There would be weeks more of scrambled eggs and brown rice. "All these dedicated people did all this work and we're not masters of our own fate," said Dr. Belkin, sounding more like Shakespeare than a man who had tried putting braces on a bird.

"Dr. Altman, call on 64!" He picked up the phone and his face lighted up. He turned to Dr. Belkin and said, "We have a lion coming in 20 minutes if you want to wait. Needs a vasectomy."